The fact is that the millions of gallons of oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico have not yet been fully discovered or removed.

But while the cleanup activity remains active in some Louisiana sites, such as Grand Terre and Grand Isle, the operation is ending in other coastal states.

Not that anyone should need it, but this is a stark reminder of how much work remains yet to do.

“BP misleads audiences when it declares cleanup victory in the Gulf. It may try to sweep this recent news under the rug, but it’s going to take a pretty big broom to hide a 40,000-pound tar mat,” said a joint statement issued by several environmental watchdog groups.

Graves said this week that as much as 1 million barrels of oil from the catastrophic spill remain unaccounted for.

“That’s five times the Exxon Valdez spill,” he said. “We can’t just wait for it to come to shore. Most importantly, we’re only seeing this oil on the beaches we have in Louisiana. What’s happening in our wetlands?”

One useful suggestion that Graves had for BP and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is monitoring the cleanup, is to set up an offshore system that can find and identify large masses of oil or tar before it washes up on our beaches or — even worse — makes its way into our inland waterways.

That is a great idea that deserves further consideration, preferably before even more huge mats are discovered.

The larger point, too, is valid.

If there is still — more than three years after the spill began — large quantities of oil unaccounted for and washing up on our beaches, clearly the cleanup must continue.

<p>If anyone still needed proof that the BP oil-spill cleanup is not yet complete, that proof was found off our coast a few weeks ago.</p><p>A 40,000-pound tar ball was found just off Grand Terre Island.</p><p>That act alone should prove to anyone who did not already believe it that BP's cleanup must continue.</p><p>The tar mat is actually a conglomeration of oil, sand shells and water, according to the folks who cleaned it up.</p><p>And the people who are trying to make sure that cleanup continues have said it just proves once again that the process remains incomplete.</p><p>“Continuing to find oil mats in our shoreline proves that our concerns are warranted,” said Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Chairman Garret Graves.</p><p>That should be easy for anyone to see and recognize.</p><p>The fact is that the millions of gallons of oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico have not yet been fully discovered or removed.</p><p>But while the cleanup activity remains active in some Louisiana sites, such as Grand Terre and Grand Isle, the operation is ending in other coastal states.</p><p>Not that anyone should need it, but this is a stark reminder of how much work remains yet to do.</p><p>“BP misleads audiences when it declares cleanup victory in the Gulf. It may try to sweep this recent news under the rug, but it's going to take a pretty big broom to hide a 40,000-pound tar mat,” said a joint statement issued by several environmental watchdog groups.</p><p>Graves said this week that as much as 1 million barrels of oil from the catastrophic spill remain unaccounted for.</p><p>“That's five times the Exxon Valdez spill,” he said. “We can't just wait for it to come to shore. Most importantly, we're only seeing this oil on the beaches we have in Louisiana. What's happening in our wetlands?”</p><p>One useful suggestion that Graves had for BP and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is monitoring the cleanup, is to set up an offshore system that can find and identify large masses of oil or tar before it washes up on our beaches or — even worse — makes its way into our inland waterways.</p><p>That is a great idea that deserves further consideration, preferably before even more huge mats are discovered.</p><p>The larger point, too, is valid.</p><p>If there is still — more than three years after the spill began — large quantities of oil unaccounted for and washing up on our beaches, clearly the cleanup must continue.</p><p>Editorials represent the opinions of</p><p>the newspaper, not of any individual.</p>